Experiencing my first hot spring was one goal I had when I road tripped the Loneliest Road in America. I see all of the glamorous shots of sitting in an open pool of fresh, steaming water and it looks so enticing. Here's the reality of experiencing my first natural hot spring.

Celebrating National Parks season kicks off this month in a variety of ways. Here is what you need to know about the when, where and how to celebrate our National Parks, Monuments and Forests.

My desire to see Bali had been a long-held dream, after studying Indonesian at school and most of my Australian friends making the pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime. So when the stars aligned and I found an opportunity to take a solo trip, I couldn't have jumped faster.

Along one of the turns, we saw a crashed van pulling a boat on the side of the road where yellow caution tape was up. We all had our theories about what possibly could have happened. Did the van get too close to the edge? Did foul play happen because it looked like gunshots in the windows? We’ll never know. We pulled over by the lake for a picnic lunch and enjoyed the serene views. When we got to the dam, we stopped and marveled at the history of all that this land holds and tried to imagine riding this trail via stagecoach. It was an adventure even by car.

How I fit a week's vacation into one day on a Holland America Cruise Day At Sea.